Rock Solid Reporting Down Under?

In advance of an Australian Broadcasting Corporation program to be aired on February 10, The Australian’s John Lyons has produced twoarticles and an accompanying video interview on the subject of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children in the West Bank.

The Australian articles most likely offer a preview as to what will be seen on the television.

To our Australian readers – please tune in on February 10, 8.30pm to Four Corners on ABC1 and see whether this topic is handled fairly and appropriately.

Central to Lyons’ report is the following:

At the heart of the issue is that Israel enforces two legal systems in the West Bank, one for Jews and one for Palestinians. About 2.5 million Palestinians live under Israeli occupation in the West Bank – also known as the Palestinian Territories – which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Palestinian children appear before the military court, while Jewish children face a civil court with full legal protections.

Contrary to Lyons’ statement, the two legal systems in operation are divided between Israeli citizens (which, of course, includes both Jews and Arabs) and non-citizens. This is not a division based on race, ethnicity or religion but on the legal status of the disputed territories. The reason why Palestinians, both children and adults, are not subject to Israeli civil law is that Israel has never annexed the West Bank and therefore, Israeli law does not apply to the area. Instead, military law is applied.

It’s safe to say that Lyons would not advocate Israel’s annexation of the West Bank and it’s also safe to assume that were Israeli law to be administered in the disputed territories, there would be an international outcry and accusations of breaching so-called international law.

So it’s hardly surprising that Jewish children face a civil court. After all, how many Jewish children would find themselves in front of a military court charged with throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli cars or IDF soldiers?

In addition, Lyons’ statement that “2.5 million Palestinians live under Israeli occupation,” needs clarification, especially when discussing the legal rights of the Palestinians. Some 2.4 million Palestinians live under Palestinian Authority rule and are subject to the PA’s domestic laws.

To Lyons’ credit, he interviews Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor who refutes the charge that Israeli policy is designed to make life intolerable for the Palestinians:

Let me say this very clearly. There is no such policy. A policy to create fear? There is no such thing. The only policy is to maintain law and order, that’s all. If there’s no violence, there’s no law enforcement.

But who exactly are the Palestinian “children” that Lyons refers to? These aren’t 8 year olds but Palestinian youths, perhaps 17 years old who are engaged in the same terror activities as Palestinians who are legally considered to be adults. Israel does not arbitrarily arrest minors for the sake of it. It isn’t “only” stone throwing that Palestinian minors are involved in.

In response to a Guardian article on the same subject, the spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in London wrote in January 2012:

But you omit the horrific nature of the atrocities that minors, some as young as 12, can be arrested for.

Hakim Awad, 17, is a minor. Last March [2011] he and his 18-year-old cousin, Amjad, brutally murdered the Fogel family while they slept. No mercy was shown to three-month-old Hadas, her two brothers (aged four and 11) and their parents. The scene of the crime, including the severed head of a toddler, left even the most experienced of police officers devastated. The duo proudly confessed to their killings, and they have shown no subsequent remorse.

Between 2000-04, 292 minors took part in terrorist activities. Shocking images of Palestinian infants dressed in explosive vests are only the tip of the hate industry that Palestinian children are exposed to. Ismail Tsabaj, 12, Azi Mostafa, 13, and Yousuf Basam, 14, were sent by Hamas on a mission chillingly similar to the one involving the Fogels, aiming to penetrate a Jewish home at night and slaughter a family in their beds. In this case, the IDF fortunately stopped them in time. …

In the face of ever younger minors committing ever greater numbers of crimes, its efforts to maintain and even increase legal protections are impressive. When a minor involved in terrorist activity is arrested, the law is clear: no torture or humiliation is permitted, nor is solitary confinement in order to induce a confession. …

Furthermore, a special juvenile court has been established to guarantee professional care for minors in detention. The above and other measures have succeeded in making legal proceedings easier for minors, and have almost halved their duration. …

It would be our wish that no minor would ever find themselves in Israeli custody. Unfortunately, we have to deal with the reality, not our dreams.

Much criticism is made of Israeli arrest operations of children in the middle of the night. Lyons may wish to consider the probable outcome of an arrest operation carried out during daylight hours. This would most likely result in violence as Palestinians in the immediate vicinity engage IDF soldiers leading to injuries or worse on both sides. Is the arrest of children during nighttime hours unpleasant? Certainly. But it still preferable to the alternative.

Lyons also states in his video interview that the Israeli authorities have been very receptive to the criticisms of the treatment of Palestinian children. Israel recognizes that improvements need to be made to the system and are continuously striving for this.

The discussion is undoubtedly a sensitive and emotive one. Nonetheless, it should be carried out in an accurate manner that avoids demonizing Israel.

To our Australian readers – please tune in on February 10, 8.30pm to Four Corners on ABC1 and see whether this topic is handled fairly and appropriately.

Fatah promised the boy $22 and 72 virgins if he blew himself up.
Google the name Hussam Abdu 72 virgins.
Sent To Die (March, 2004)

If you needed more evidence of Islam’s vile and heinous nature, the cover story from the March 25, 2004 edition NY Daily News certainly obliged. For $22.00 and the promise of 72 virgins in Allah’s paradise, a mildly retarded Palestinian boy was coerced into becoming a human bomb by Islamic clerics. Compelling young children to do their dying for them seems to have become a favorite tactic of the Islamic fundamentalists in control of Yasser Arafat’s political party called Fatah.

Islamic Imams and warlords are cowards, hiding behind little boys. They corrupt, coerce, and recruit children with promises of perverted rewards, while they themselves remain in the comfort and safety of their mosques and madrasas. No doubt they know Muhammad’s dogma is fraudulent and morally bankrupt and that Islam is simply a means to wealth and power.

I believe that the Four Corners video, will turn out to be of MAJOR IMPORTANCE in our PR battle.
The article is full of tiny distortions, some of them appalling (like the use of the Israeli mom) but at the same time the article has a major claim, about “The Israeli Mapping Plan”. This must first be studied and analyzed. Without addressing this claim correctly, everything else is irrelevant. I listed the points that IMHO must be addressed and how, most of them cannot be done offhand without research. Even though Arab child violence against Israelis is prevalent. Even though there is no Non Violent resistance (mentioned several times). Even though they practically spell out their own violent actions.

I’m sorry, but this video needs a much deeper response.
I don’t think simple and immediate yada yada talkbalk on their site will be a proper response, and also not a coordinated outcry to the TV station.

There needs to be a very detailed and double checked response, and a bit of humbleness till then.
We cannot yet rule out that SOME OF THEIR CLAIMS MAY BE CORRECT, and may need addressing from our own leadership and armed forces.

I am sure that this is a MAJOR ASSAULT. It calls for a one on one double check and refute VIDEO along with a written report. Not only addressing the Palywood parts, and the distortions, but actually looking into the important claims, and our (Israeli) actions.

Here are some points to be addressed IMHO:

1. The allegation of the Israeli “mapping” plan, and extortion of information.
I believe this is THE MAIN POINT that must be addressed. (along with refuting all the little “imagine you were living in”). If we suppose that the “mapping plan” is an actual policy, then in order for it to be moral and accepted in the public eye (not in Daniella’s eyes but in the public, everyday person around the world eyes) the response report will have to show
a. that Israel is checking children who actually participated in violence,
b. show how prevalent the violence is, and especially
* show the role of children (“shabab”) in this violence, and
* show the role of children in war and conflict in the Arab culture – including the near history, (1947 Mamilla riots, 2013 Mount of Olives attacks on Hassidic Jews, videos of the Shiite Shahid kids, the Hamas, the little girl from Hadassah Hospital with the body bomb, the suicide kids whos lives were saved by Israeli soldiers)
* show the role of children in the Paliwood events
* show the people participating in THIS movie in their other contexts, including the children

b. that the numbers are far smaller than what the reporter said he saw with his eyes in the court. (and if not, then to ACCEPT the claim and see to it that we correct ourselves.)

2. The depiction of extremely violent acts as “Non Violent”. – Including, I think, some of the images shown here, some of which were staged.

3. The appalling use of the Israeli mother’s interview to give the exact opposite of what she wishes to say, while NOT FALLING in their trap, clearly shown during the interview. (Oh, and then giving the numbers, to prove that what we just saw is not important).

3. The many TINY distortions.
It is interesting to see how they made this report. They interviewed Daniella Weis about Sharon – and she proudly told them the interesting fact. She may have (or may not) added other parts to the interview.
In the response video it will be necessary to use her evidence even though she is the hard right wing and the part of an extreme minority WITHIN the settler movement.

It is also clear that the Australians were confronted with answers, including
* the call to visit the rock throwing results,
* and the information about the terror attack, before showing the peace wishing and non-violent Bassam.

* The Israeli baby hit by a rock was downplayed.
* The ‘terrorist uncle’ was downplayed.
* The terrorist attack was downplayed, and even made to seem (for a long second) as another Israeli atrocity.
* The Israeli response was clearly played in a distorted and non-contextualized way, turning it into a farce.
* The kids walk to school along the settlement. Which settlement is it. Perhaps the settlers would want to join forces against any vigilantes. (More probably, the kids were involved in actual violence. The Israeli volunteer should be interviewed, for the details he left out (it seemed there was no Settler provocation to show)
* The kid shot in the side of the head by settlers, while “soldiers stand by”. The pictures seem to show the opposite happening. Settlers being attacked by kids. It must be a known case and must have reached the court. What has been the report on that one?

Some distortions (like the numbers, the “over 40 years” – unless you accept what they clearly wish to point out, that all of Israel is an occupation, which then does not work with “in the West Bank also KNOWN as the Palestinian Territories”).

Every frame here should be analyzed, and thoroughly tested and addressed. But most importantly, FIRST AND FOREMOST, the “mapping plan” must be checked, analyzed, and if needed, contested.

About 2.5 million Palestinians live under Israeli occupation in the West Bank.

Actaully only 150,000 Palestinian live in area C which is under Israel so called occupation. The rest live under PA. palestinian of east Jerusalem don;t live under occupation as it was annxed by Israel and any Palesintian who live there can become Israeli citizents if he wants.

I distrust the ABC when it comes to politics, it is heavily weighted with left wing journalists and management and continually attacks conservative parties whether they be in opposition or government. The best thing our PM could do would be to cut off their funding, if they had to be profitable they would fail because so few want to watch their left wing biased reporting.

When the “Children” as the article calls them,can break into a families house in the middle of the night ,go into where they lay sleeping,and brutally kill the whole family,those that are anti-semetic,anti-Israel, would congratulate them,and pat them on the back! However,justice calls for something else entirely.Terrorists ,murderers,as these “children” are,should be treated as such.Articles that continually put Israel in the wrong, for trying to protect it’s citizens from such terrorism,only encourages those involved, to continue with thier actions,as they can clearly see they are just as prejudice against Israel,and it’s right to exist,”peacefully”.

Quote: About 2.5 million Palestinians live under Israeli occupation in the West Bank – also known as the Palestinian Territories – which Israel has occupied since 1967. Unquote. (A) Those “territories” have ALWAYS BELONGED TO ISRAEL; (B) Supposing – JUST SUPPOSING – that indeed Israel “occupied those territories” it di so in a legitimate self-defensa action where 6 Arab Nations tried to destroy it – AND NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD OF A COUNTRY BEING ATTACKED AND WINNING THE WAR GIVE BACK ANY LAND WHATSOVER!!!! SO SHOVE THIS DOWN YOUR THROATS TOGETHER WITH YOUR 5 O’CLOCK CUPPA.!!!!! Another detail: STOP PARROTING AL JAZEERAH!!!!!

Is it reasonable to expect fair and honest reporting from the world media? Let us be realistic shall we? The world press is reacting to the bombardment of propaganda sponsored and fed by the Arab nations. Any pro-Israeli viewpoint by a reporter would be screened and corrected by editors before its release. Even here in Canada where we are blessed to have a Prime Minister and cabinet that is solidly in favor of and backing Israel and its rights, we need to vet and oppose many anti-Israeli articles and reports from our media. Our CBC which is our national broadcaster and various other outlets are constantly fueling the diatribe which vilifies Israel and lionizes her enemies. Frankly, I believe our only recourse is to continue to pray that Mr. Netanyahu will not cave in to the demands of the PA and its ally the U.S., that Hashem will guide and defend the tiny nation in the midst of growing opposition, and that my country, Canada, will continue to defend and cover her back, regardless.